People presume someone homeless is a person who doesn’t want to work, they are an alcoholic, a drug addict who has a sleeping bag and sits on the streets begging for money. That’s not what homelessness is. There is so much more to it.
When you see a woman and a man with their kids at a bus stop with lots of suitcases, they are not necessarily going on holidays… Homelessness could be happening to your neighbour to your friend or your family, it can happen to almost anybody.
We had a guy knocking on our door in the coffee shop coming from his job in a multinational company fully suited and I was like: “Are you lost?” He said, “No, I’m actually homeless, I have been couch surfing for the last couple of months, but I have nowhere to go now. Can you give me a hand?”
There was another day when one of the girls I went to school with came in the door with her kid looking for a bite to eat and hopefully for some accommodation for the night. We both had the same upbringing, we grew up in the same village, we went to the same school, had the same teachers…
I spent over two years working directly with customers in Focus Ireland’s Coffee Shop and I learnt a lot about life. These cases are all wake-up calls and people should know about them.”
This story was highlighted by @focusireland.
Some 88 families became newly homeless in Dublin in October 2017 this is the highest number recorded for the month of October since we began recording the phenomena in 2013 and 31% higher than the number recorded in October 2016. Let’s change the face of homelessness together with Focus Ireland person by person, child by child, family by family. Donate here.
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